British, German and Russian clients dominate among foreigners seeking treatment at Czech healthcare facilities, mostly for cosmetic surgery. The number of foreign patients in the Czech Republic has been rising by 10% to 15% a year.

The number of foreign patients in the Czech Republic has been rising by 10% to 15% a year, according to the Health Ministry.

Foreign women mostly seek breast reconstruction surgery, but the demand for assisted reproduction, bariatric surgery and gynaecological treatment is also high, data from three large Czech clinics show.

Foreigners make up 95% of patients of the cosmetic surgery unit in the ISCARE clinic and about one-third of patients treated in the Esthe clinic. Esthe is has patients from Britain, Germany and Russia. Frantisek Lambe of ISCARE says, “90% of our customers are British- mostly from London, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities, while the rest are Germans from Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and other large industrial cities. In 2015 we performed 880 cosmetic operations.”

There is an increasing demand at GynCentrum clinic for assisted reproduction, gynaecological care and cosmetic surgery. Women seek gynaecological procedures such as laser treatment of urinary incontinence

A Czech cosmetic surgeon performs 450 operations a year on average and most customers are women between 31 to 50.The standard of care is high while prices are lower than in Western European countries.

By 2015, 10,000 foreign couples were seeking fertility treatment travel to the Czech Republic as Czech laws allow both donated sperms and donated eggs for assisted reproduction, which many European countries do not. The main European competitor for infertility treatment in Europe is Spain.

Medical tourism is also very profitable for the country. The treatment of foreigners brings more than 0.5 billion crowns to the state budget a year, according to the Health Ministry. Medical tourists stay one week longer and spend twice or three times more a day than normal tourists.